Quicksand and the Three Impetuses

[MorGrendel]

Quicksand
In all battles there is quicksand. Warriors get stuck, some even relish the feeling. There is a tendency for warriors to fight only at their level, never above or below. There is a similar tendency in other individuals to fight down to the level of their opponent. There is still a third tendency where a warrior “trophy hunts” and seeks out a particular opponent. These behaviors lead to quicksand as they can capture the entire line. Quicksand removes a line’s combat effectiveness as it locks warriors in place and sucks away more capable warriors. These behaviors should be avoided at all costs. Remembering your impetuses will limit the amount of quicksand you manufacture.

[MorGrendel]

Three Impetuses

There are three impetuses. They are the transitional kinetic modes one implements to focus his/her energies to overcome an opponent. They are never wrong or right, just a conscience decision on how to proceed. In general, the impetuses are to “steal the initiative”, to “counter the attack”, or to “defend and respond”. You must use them in conjunction to ensure victory.

Steal the initiative
I led, victory followed

Do not set your feet, storm forward, and make yourself appear larger.
Plow ahead towards your opponent, make him/her wary, and force him/her to react to you.
Do not hesitate, clear the path, and advance in on opponent after opponent.
Remember, your whole body is a weapon. Taking ground may trump killing an opponent.
Dictate the flow of the battle, select where to engage. If an opponent excels at fighting at range, than quickly close the gap; if they wish to grapple close, than fight them at range.
Never give the enemy what they want, unless you are certain you have the resources to win. Kill the enemy before they realize they are trapped.
Drown your opponent with your intensity, and do not give them a moment to breath.

Employ the following:
• Quick Kill: Before the enemy can set, kill an enemy warrior. Gain a local numerical superiority and exploit it before the enemy can respond.
• Cap the End: Locate the weak end of the line and engage it. Create a numerical superiority. Bend the line back until you create a “corner”. Break the corner and defeat the enemy entirely.
• Punch Charge: Bring a majority of your troops against a minority of the enemy. Force your enemy to move reinforcements. Move to behind the enemy and look for winnable fights. Don’t stop moving.
• Cross charge: Draw all the attention. As the enemy watches and moves to engage you, there will be holes in his/her line. Those gaps in attention are what you hope to exploit. A cross charge can also be used as a distraction to hide another charge.
• Hard flank/Fire and Forget: Send a few warriors out to the far flank. Stretch the opponent out, and where the line is thinnest, attack. If the enemy refuses to stretch, then send the flanking warriors all the way behind the enemy. Create chaos and unravel the enemy.

[MorGrendel]

Counter the Attack
I reacted, victory followed

There are spaces within spaces; in the storm there are calm eddies that stretch out from you. Find them and you will find victory.
Know your “pipe”, the area not defended by your weapon, and your “shadow”, the area your weapon defends when stationary. Know your opponent’s pipe, and realize when both are open to attack. Remember, the shadow is relative to the angle of attack.
Force your opponent to attack you where you are strongest, in your shadow, and then strike your attacker in the pipe while his/her defenses are down.
Realize that an opponent’s shield can be used as a shadow as well as an opponent cannot strike you through it.
Show weakness where you are strong. Demoralize the enemy by giving them nothing, by dodging or parrying the blow.
Draw your opponent into dangerous positions and ranges. Kill them as they change ranges.
Anticipate your opponent’s attacks and react without hesitation.

Employ the following:
• Stop-Hit: Use your weapon to block an attack. Use the momentum gained from blocking to counter attack.
• J-Hook/Skip shot: Use your weapon to defect a blow. As the opponent’s weapon clears your pipe, pass though your opponent’s pipe to the target.
• Dodge and Parry: Make your opponent move in unexpected and unnatural ways. Draw them in, confuse them, the counter-attack. Do not Dodge straight backwards and do not Parry (or block) straight down.
• Pulse Charge: Attack the enemy, and then withdraw. Do not penetrate too deeply. Sow chaos and allow long weapons to take advantage of the confusion.
• Reaction/Ambush Charge: When charged let the first few warriors through, they will be beaten by sheer numbers. Then cut off the head of the snake. The warriors at the neck will not see the charge coming as they were following the head. When the bunch up, surge over them and make them pay for their lack of attention.
• Seam Ripping: Allow the enemy to move their units. Pride, individuality, or conditioning forces blocks of men to create space between them. Find where those spaces will be the widest, lure your enemy to open those spaces even more, when they do, send a crack unit to rip the seam open and attack both flanks. This works best once the enemy commits to another unit engaging them to the front.

[MorGrendel]

Defend and Respond
I withstood, and victory followed.

Defense is paramount. Often the winner is the side that gives less ground and less lives.
Protect yourself as your opponent rains down blows, weather the storm, and let his/her fury blow out against you. Give ground only as necessary. When you opponent is tired and overextended strike him/her down like a vengeful hammer. One blow to end it all.
Defense is not passive, actively defend yourself and others. You are not a guard waiting for an attack; you are not turtle that contracts defensively.
One can be a distraction, a decoy, or the first into the fray, but the goal never changes; be the anvil upon which the enemy’s metal is beaten and tested. And when the moment is right, quench the enemy in the flood of Galatian counter-attack.

Employ the following:
• Column Charge: Stay alive. Put pressure on a point and force your enemy back. Do not expect to break through, but if it happens be prepared to adapt. Do not leave the safety of the line.
• Draws/Decoys: Draw attention to yourself, obscure the enemy’s vision, and become a target. Get into the enemy’s craw, and make them remove you. Buy the line valuable time to snatch up other valuable territory.
• Deigned Flank: You are outnumbered. You must hold your ground long enough for the majority of your unit to make an impact somewhere else. When they meet the enemy on the flank or rear, then launch your attack.
• Hannibal’s Pincer / Kill pocket: Many people think that a kill pocket is where you create a rounded defense between two obstructions. This is wrong. These are never kill pockets because the enemy never enters them. A true kill pocket involves giving your opponent a place to attack, giving ground slowly instead of lives, so that your line envelopes the attackers. This can be done anywhere and in any scenario; this must be understood if you wish to excel at defending and responding.

[Thomas Fitzcharles]

Good Day, Jeff.

I would like to add a trap that I fall into all the time. The to easy of a kill. Many times during any given battle, I have passed up a kill becasue there was just no sport in it. When an opponent (except archers) has no idear I am aiming at him, I'll wave my bow until I have thier attention, then I'll try to make the shot. This is especially true in res battles. Also, if I have shot a preson a number of time already and I can see they are getting frustrated and I am ruining their day. I try to stay away from this when a win or loss is imminent, or when we are being hard pressed. But, who is to say that a kill I past up early on didn't effect the end result. I am not sure I'll be able to change I don't want CA to be banned because were so effective. This weekend was a good example I gave up shooting 3 spearmen because they were getting frustrated and finally change side because of the their frustration.

Sincerely

Thomas

[MorGrendel]

Interesting point, and one I have not pondered before. It clearly has a cumlative effect that demorilizes and resonates into battles later in the day. I watched Handrik storm off near the end, and I know it has a similar affect on me.

How might we exploit this? How does it affect the rhythm of battle? How might we be affected?

If you stop killing targets, how does it jeapordize the line?

[Thomas Fitzcharles]

Good Day, Jeff.

I don't think this is a situation that we can directly exploit to any good effect. I do not want to be the cause of someones day being ruined. However to a point, do fighters get off their game because they are worried about being shot, I would say yes. Do groups change their fighting style for the same reason. Again I would say yes. do shield men now have to consentrate on protecting spearmen more again yes. opps got to go I'll.

Sincerely

Thomas